Party Time

Jacob and I have had a fun week with both Jim and Adam in town. We've been to a hockey game, played heaps of Wii, and enjoyed lots of visits with family & friends. On Thursday, twenty-seven of us gathered at Nancy's house and we had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Today we invited everyone over to the condo to celebrate Adam's and Nancy's birthdays, and, once again, a great time was had by all. Adam is heading back to Colorado tomorrow and Jim back to Texas on Tuesday, but both will return to Michigan in only three weeks.

The birthday boy waiting to open his presents.

Together

Jim flew to Detroit from Houston tonight. Adam flew in from Denver on Friday. Jacob and I flew to Texas last month and back to Michigan last week. Nancy and Richie both flew round trips between Detroit and Houston within the past few weeks. Luckily, none of us encountered any of those nightmarish scenarios with airport security that have been popping up regularly in the news recently. The six of us flew on three different airlines, so we went through several different TSA checkpoints. Richie and I were the only ones who got to experience the full body scan machine, and it was not a big deal at all. I don't know how I would feel about undergoing an "enhanced" pat down, though. I have received regular pat downs several times, and, again, those were not big deals. Unfortunately, I doubt that there is an easy answer to this difficult security question. On a lighter note - airline entertainment is certainly reaching new highs. With the availability of Direct TV, I was able to watch Wednesday's episode of Survivor at 39,000 feet at the same time that it was airing at home.

Since Jim arrived in Michigan tonight, it marks the first time that he, Adam, Jacob, and I have been at the condo concurrently. We have owned the place for almost six months, yet the four of us have not been here at the same time. It isn't as if we haven't been together in the past half year, because we have stayed in hotels, at Adam's apartment, and at the house in Texas simultaneously. Not surprisingly, the thrill of this lovely family togetherness didn't last long for Jim, and a few hours after getting to the condo, he went to bed.

Texas Troublemaker

Jacob and I flew back to Michigan last night. When we were still in Texas last week, we repeatedly caught a squirrel chewing on the swing cushion in our backyard. I can't be certain, but I think it was taking the stuffing out of the seat to create a winter lair. No matter how many times we chased the furry fiend away, it inevitably returned for more nest material. At first Jim thought we could just repair the cushion, but it soon became apparent that we were no match for a determined squirrel. We caught the critter in the act numerous times, but it always scampered away before I could take a picture. I was eventually able to snap a photo of the destructive thief from inside the house.

The initial damage to our swing cushion.

If you look closely, you can see the culprit on the seat having a great time.

Out and About

Before Nancy headed back to Michigan, we played tourist at some more Texas attractions. Jacob and I brought both Nancy and Jim out to Galveston one afternoon to revisit the Ocean Star offshore oil platform museum. It is such an intriguing place! Another day, we went to check out the Houston Galleria because I had heard lots of hype about it, but had no idea what was there. It turns out that the Galleria is a very huge, really upscale, and mostly unaffordable shopping mall, alongside office buildings and hotels. On Friday, we didn't venture far from the house because the weather was beautiful and we wanted to enjoy the 81 degree temperatures. We basked in the sun, ate lunch outside, and swam. By the way, the one bunch of bananas that was growing on our tree ripened last week, then quickly rotted. We peeled one and were surprised to find that it actually looked and smelled like a banana inside. I'm sorry to say that no one volunteered to be a guinea pig and taste it. Maybe next year!

Jacob and Nancy jumped into the hot tub on Friday afternoon.

Remembering

Nancy flew to Houston on Saturday, and we have been busy as bees ever since she arrived. On Sunday, we drove to San Antonio to see what the city had to offer, and, I must say, we were not disappointed! Jean and Jenna met us at the Imax Theater there and we watched a movie about the battle of the Alamo. After that we all wandered around the River Center Mall and peeked at the famous San Antonio Riverwalk. Our highlight of the day was visiting the Alamo, which was actually bigger and more impressive than I imagined. Jim, Jean, and Jenna headed back to Houston later that afternoon, and Nancy, Jacob, and I went to a hotel for the night. Before leaving San Antonio the next day, we strolled around the Riverwalk and took a ride on a tour boat. Besides being informative, the tour was also really interesting. Our guide was witty and quick, which came in handy for him when dealing with the frequent, slurred comments of a loud, but friendly, drunk guy on our boat.

Today Nancy, Jacob, and I went to the Houston Zoo and had a blast. The weather was beautiful and the animals were unusually active. I was pleasantly surprised to actually witness critters up close, personal, and moving around. We would have stayed even longer if the zoo hadn't closed at 5 o'clock.

Jim and Jacob outside of the Alamo chapel.

Jacob sitting on our river tour boat, which was coincidentally named "Ms Linda."

Handlers watered the elephants at the zoo. That cute baby was only a month old.

This spectacled bear seemed pretty comfortable.

DTE vs. CenterPoint

Believe it or not, we had to have someone from the gas company over to both our condo in Michigan and our house in Texas recently. I don't know what it is about us and natural gas leaks, but I don't like it.

A few days before Jacob and I left for Houston last month, we noticed a faint smell of gas in the laundry room of the condo. I hesitated calling DTE Energy because the odor was not very strong. I decided to call, though, since we would be out of town for several weeks and would not be around to check it on a daily basis. The technician arrived a short time after we contacted the company and could not have been nicer. He stressed over and over that if I ever smelled gas to be sure to call DTE. No big deal. No charge. No problem. By the way, the tech guy did find a leak in one of our pipe connections and fixed it. He repeated that I should never feel bad about calling them. Ever. Always better to be safe than sorry.

Fast forward to last weekend. Jim and I had been smelling gas near the meter in the backyard of our Houston house for a couple of days. Since the odor was slight, we ignored it and hoped that it would go away. It didn't. I remembered what our friendly DTE employee had told me, so we called CenterPoint Energy to come check it out. The technician arrived and pretty much told us that our meter was fine, nothing was leaking, they often emit small amounts of gas, blah, blah. He proceeded to tell us stories about people who overreact to "normal" smells and hinted that we may just be that type. He was packing up his things when Jim opened the wooden gate to our pool equipment area and a gassy odor whooshed out towards us. We had the pool heater on at the time and the tech guy decided that, hmmm, maybe something was leaking after all. His sniffer wand did indeed detect gas coming out of the exhaust on the pool heater, so he turned off that gas line and recommended that we have a pool repair company look at it.

The pool guy came to the house on Thursday. Even though the smell of gas was definitely present, he assured me that it was "normal," and all was well. He never even opened any doors or panels on the heating unit until we switched it to the off position and a gassy stench came spewing out of the exhaust. At that point he could not deny that something was wrong, but since it was late in the day, he promised to return on Friday to service the heater. When he did come back, he found some gunk in the orifice, cleaned it, and assured me that we were good to go. The pool heater now only smells gassy when it is turned on and turned off, but not while it is running. The pool guy insists that it is perfectly "normal" and everything is fine, but I intend to keep my eye on things around here. My nose knows.

Around Town

Richie flew back to Michigan yesterday, but not before hitting a few more tourist attractions in the Lone Star State. Last week, he and Jacob spent a day at the Houston Zoo and found it to be large, impressive, fun, and entertaining. The three of us - Richie, Jacob, and I - also went to the Museum of Natural Science one day and really enjoyed that. It housed quite a variegated mix of exhibits, from dinosaurs to oil production to sea life to chemistry to early America. Jacob's very favorite display was, interestingly, the gems & minerals. We only intended to spend a couple hours at the museum, but ended up staying much longer.

On our travels around town last week, we came across some intriguing signs. The office-seekers here in Houston really went overboard with their posters, banners, and placards. I have never seen so many political ads in my life. I drove around a few different polling places just to gawk at the glut of signs. Colorful, yes, but definitely overkill.

Local groups have promised to recycle all of these election signs, which is great because recycling is not typically a big thing here in Texas.

Check out the wacky hours at my favorite doughnut shop here in Houston.

I never have figured out how much things actually cost at this store. Either way, the price isn't bad.

Dum-Dum Dismay and a Happy Halloween

I purchased some Dum-Dums yesterday to throw in with the candy bars that we were giving out to trick-or-treaters here in Houston. I decided to sort through the lollipops and keep all the cherry and strawberry ones for myself. I was shocked to discover that out of a package of 150, there were no cherry suckers and only one strawberry one. The bag consisted of numerous stupid flavors like "Cotton Candy," "Banana Split," and the ever-abundant "Mystery." Since when did cherry become obsolete? I am beyond disappointed in the Dum-Dum company.

Jean and Jenna came over this afternoon for a BBQ. The weather today was, without a doubt, the best I have ever experienced on Halloween. Jacob went trick-or-treating with only shorts and a t-shirt under his banana costume and Jenna wore a summery, sleeveless cha-cha dress with flip-flops. It was so different from our Halloweens in Michigan where the kids usually needed to wear coats over their costumes to fend off near-freezing temperatures. Candy hand-outs in our Houston neighborhood were fairly similar to those up north, with the exception of the huge individually-wrapped dill pickles that Jake and Jen came home with. I've seen some odd things given out to trick-or-treaters before, but never pickles!

Shortly after I took this picture, Richie walked through the room and

accidentally kicked the rows of suckers awry.

We carved our pumpkins poolside this year.

Jacob in his banana costume.

Sealife

We have been on the go ever since we arrived in Texas over the weekend. On Monday, Jacob, Richie, and I zipped down to Galveston for a few hours. We toured a retired offshore oil rig and then frolicked on the beach. On Tuesday afternoon, the three of us met up with Jim downtown and visited the Houston Aquarium. Despite some iffy reviews, we were pleased to find the aquarium to be fun and entertaining. Besides the marine life exhibits, they also had a talking parrot, four white tigers, and - oddly - rides. We had a great time, stayed for hours, and took advantage of everything that the aquarium had to offer.

The offshore energy center museum in Galveston was both educational and fascinating.

We dipped our toes in the Gulf of Mexico. The air temp was close to 90 and the water temp was around 80. It would have been a lovely day if the gusty winds hadn't continuously blasted us with sand.

The Carnival Ecstasy was in port on Monday.

We were able to watch the caretakers feed lots of the creatures at the aquarium.

We all touched some baby stingrays. They felt like velvet.

Jacob did his best to appear frightened.

Autumn in Texas

Jacob, Richie, and I flew to Houston from Detroit yesterday morning. None of us got more than a few hours of sleep Friday night because we had foolishly left our packing until the last minute. We arrived in Texas to find above-normal temperatures (upper 80s!), so not only were we tired and sluggish, we were hot as well. We were all much perkier today after getting a decent amount of sleep last night.

Jim, Jacob, Richie, and I drove out to Jean's place around noon today. Jacob and Richie helped her set up her new Wii game system, which has been sitting idle for almost a week. Even though Jean is an IT specialist at work, she could not quite figure out how to connect all of those troublesome wires & sync all of that pesky equipment. Later, we went to a farm in the rural western Houston suburbs to check out a corn maze and pumpkin patch. After almost collapsing from heat exhaustion while wandering through the corn field in the blazing sun (wimpy me - not the others), we rushed to buy snow cones. We also enjoyed a hayride, pig races, and a host of other fall farm activities.

There was a wacky "Goat Bridge" at the farm where the critters walked up, over, and around 20-foot-high catwalks and platforms. They were lured up the walkways with treats.

The corn maze was not the biggest we have ever seen, but not the smallest either.

Jen, Jake, and Richie ventured into the corn.

Jenna worked on her biceps.

The gang on the hay wagon.

Pinheads

Jacob has gone bowling a few times in his life, but only once without using those bumpers in the gutters. His score for his solo non-bumper-aided game was 17.

Jacob ventured over to Cloverlanes last week with some friends. Now that they are all teenagers, the group is way too cool to even consider bumper bowling. All of the kids started off with numerous gutter balls - in fact most of them were even worse at the sport than Jacob. After a few frames, some of the gang began to catch on a little bit and even knock down some pins. Jacob ended up with 54 the first game and 72 the second, and believe it or not, that was the highest total for all of the bowlers.

Despite their low scores, the teens had a fun time with lots of laughs. Bowling with an actual ball and real pins was an eye-opener compared to the virtual bowling that Jacob has done recently with our Wii. And now I know why the senior citizens at our local community center love that Wii bowling so much - picking up those heavy bowling balls at the alley is way too strenuous!